A professional photographer was visiting our military base on his birthday day, so I scheduled a portrait sitting for the afternoon. He did a great job and captured Isaac beautifully in sepia colored photos. This created a little delemia for me though. I just wasn't sure about what to do with his hearing aides! I wasn't sure if I wanted them on for the pictures or not. Camryn wears glasses and she wears them for her professional pictures but I really felt conflicted about having the hearing aides in the pictures. In the end, we had wardrobe changes during the photo session and I didn't want him fussing and pulling the aides so I kept them off just to keep the peace between him and the photographer. I love the pictures! But I'm still wondering if it would have been more truthfull to have him wearing the aides. I don't know why this was such a delimia for me, but it was and kind of still is. I think I'll make sure he's wearing them for his two year old pictures. Maybe I'll be more comfortable with the reality that "my baby is hard of hearing and needs to wear hearing aides." It's our reality and I actually wish I would have celebrated this part of him right then, instead of hiding it. Even though I wasn't hiding it. But maybe I was hiding it. My baby isn't perfect. But he is perfect. (now I'm wiping my own tears...it's so confusing sometimes...)
Our favorite (and only) audiologist, Lt. Duhon, moved away this month. I feel sad about this too. :-) He's been with us from the begining of this journey. He had limited experience with infant hearing tests and here came Isaac, his first patient to not pass the standard testing. He rose to the challenge and helped pave the way for us to get Isaac diagnosed and aided. He taught each one of us all about the hearing process, parts of the ears, how the testing worked, how to make ear molds, how to understand the audiology reports, etc. In other words, he opened up a whole new world for us to explore. He was patient and kind and understanding and helpful. What more could we ask for in an audiologist and in a friend. He's also spent time in our home to play poker with Travis and helped out in a couple of our backyard BBQ parties so we will miss him on several levels. Our new audiologist is based out of Naples, Italy. She'll be here for a week, every 3-4 months. I'm not sure how well that will work for us but I guess it is what it is. The Navy decided to not fill the current, full time audiologist position at the hospital here so this is how it will be for the next several years at least.
In speech therapy, we've decide to cut back to only once a week. Thus far, we've seen Lisa twice a week but we decided to change the IEP to once a week. So every Thursday from 9:00-10:00 we'll spend time with Lisa. This is good because we're also considering weekly physical therapy for a little while. Our physical therapist, Sherri, is concerned about Isaac having low tone issues since he's not balancing well, doesn't have good core strength and isn't walking or even pre-walking yet. I don't think it's a big deal, but I don't think it will hurt to have a little professional help/play. At his well baby appointment, he got his one year old shots and his weight and height checked. He's not getting big very fast. In fact he's dropped to 20% on his weight chart. This means we need to try and fatten him up. Hopefully we'll find some good table foods he'll start to like. I'm still breastfeeding him and plan to keep that up for little while more especially since his weight isn't up right now.
It's been a very full first year for little Isaac! What a blessing and what a challenge we have with him in our family now. I love you my little baby Isaac. Happy birthday.
